Multidetector computed tomography findings of an asymptomatic levoatrial cardinal vein with an interatrial course

A 57-year-old female patient with a family history of coronary artery diseaseadmitted to our hospital for the coronary check-up. A coronary angiographywas performed with ECG-gated 128 slice dual source computed tomography.Multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) showed, in addition to the normalcoronary arteries, a persistent levoatrial cardinal vein (LCV) draining into vena cavasuperior. ECG-gated cardiac MDCT is a useful tool showing the origin, course, anddrainage site of LCV

Brachiobasilic versus brachiocephalic arteriovenous fistula: A prospective randomized study

BackgroundThe most recent Kidney Disease Outcomes Quality Initiative (KDOQI) guidelines recommend that the order of preference for arteriovenous fistula (AVF) placement is the radial-cephalic primary AVF, followed by the secondary brachiocephalic (BC) and, if either of these is not viable, then brachiobasilic (BB) AVF should be fashioned. However, there is limited prospective data comparing technical and clinical outcomes of these two approaches. The purpose of our study was to compare outcome, patency, and complication rates in these two autogenous upper arm AV accesses.MethodsBetween December 2003 and and January 2007, patients (61 male, 39 female) who have lost more distal AVFs were enrolled in the study. After preoperative duplex mapping, patients with patent both basilic and cephalic veins greater than 3 mm of diameter were randomized into BCAVF and BBAVF groups, each group consisting of 50 patients. All procedures were performed under local anesthesia as one-stage procedures. Follow-up data were prospectively collected. Kaplan-Meier analysis was used to calculate primary and secondary patency rates. Univariate and multivariate Cox-regression analysis was used to find risks for the occurrence of thrombosis.ResultsBaseline demographics, clinical characteristics, and preoperative history dialysis access were comparable between groups with the exception of the fact that mean caliber of the basilic veins were larger (4.51 ± 0.93 mm vs 3.90 ± 0.1 mm; P = .002). The mean duration of operation was significantly shorter in the BC group compared with the BB group (P < .001). There was no significant difference in the thirty day mortality, wound complications, 24 hour thrombosis, postoperative hemorrhage, maturation, and time to maturation between the groups. Mean follow-up was 43.2 ± 1.8 months. Primary patency at 1 and 3 years of follow-up was 87% and 81% for the BC group and 86% and 73% for the BB group (P = .7) Secondary patency at one and three year follow-up was 87% and 70% for the BC group and 88% and 71% for the BB group, respectively (P = .8). Twenty-eight patients (28%) in the BC (18 patients) and BB (10 patients) group died with a patent fistula during the follow-up period (P = .18). Multivariate analysis revealed that use of dominant arm increased the risk of fistula failure.ConclusionWe conclude that brachiobasilic and brachiocephalic AVF are equally effective alternatives; however, a longer and demanding operation with BB AVF construction should be considered

Lípidos bioactivos, actividad antirradical y estabilidad de aceites de semillas de rosa mosqueta bajo oxidación térmica y fotoinducida

In the present report, the fatty acids, tocopherols, and sterol profiles as well as the total phenolics and carotenoids of rosehip (Rosa canina) seed oil were determined. The major fatty acids in the oil were linoleic and linolenic acids, comprising 54.80% and 23.47% of the total fatty acids, respectively. Other bioactive lipids in the oil included total tocopherols (786.3 mg/kg), total phenolics (37.97 mg/kg) and total carotenoids (218.8 mg/kg). Rosehip oil was rich in γ-tocopherol (472.0 mg/kg) and β‑sitosterol (78.0% of total sterols). The DPPH· (2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging activity of the oil showed 1.08 mg α-tocopherol/g oil and 4.18 μmol TEAC (Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity)/g oil, respectively. The ABTS+ (2,2′-Azino-bis-3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulphonic acid) radical scavenging activity of the oil showed 1.00 mg α-tocopherol/g oil and 3.02 μmol TEAC/g oil, respectively. The induction period (IP) of the oil was 3.46 h for the Rancimat test (110 °C), while the IP of oil in differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) test (100-150 °C) ranged between 0.26 and 58.06 min. The oxidative stability of the oil was determined under thermal and photo oxidation conditions. The progression of oxidation at 30 °C (under UV light) and at 60 °C (in the dark) was followed by recording the ultraviolet absorption (K232 and K270) and degradation of total tocopherols, γ-tocopherol and total carotenoids. Rapid deterioration occurred in the oil stored under UV light conditions. The information provided in the present work is of importance for using rosehip seed oil in different food and non-food applications.En este trabajo se determinaron los ácidos grasos, tocoferoles, el perfil de esteroles, así como los fenoles totales y los carotenoides de aceites de semillas de rosa mosqueta (Rosa canina). Los principales ácidos grasos fueron linoleico y linolénico, que representan el 54,80% y 23,47% de los ácidos grasos totales, respectivamente. Otros lípidos bioactivos incluyen tocoferoles totales (786,3 mg/kg), fenoles (37,97 mg/kg) y carotenoides (218,8 mg/kg). El aceite de rosa mosqueta es rico en γ-tocoferol (472,0 mg/kg) y β-sitosterol (78,0% del total de los esteroles). La actividad captadora de radicales DPPH· (2,2’-difenil-1-picrilhidrazilo) fue 1,08 mg de α-tocoferol/g de aceite y 4,18 μmol de TEAC (capacidad antioxidante equivalente de Trolox)/g de aceite, respectivamente. La actividad captadora de radicales ABTS+ (2,2’-Azino-bis-3-etilbenzotiazolin-6-sulfónico) fue de 1,00 mg de α-tocoferol/g de aceite y 3,02 μmoles de TEAC/g de aceite, respectivamente. El período de inducción (IP) del aceite fue 3.46 h Rancimat (110 °C), mientras que el IP del aceite para la prueba de calorimetría de barrido diferencial (DSC) (100-150 °C) osciló entre 0,26-58,06 min. La estabilidad oxidativa del aceite se determinó en condiciones térmicas y de fotooxidativas. El progreso de la oxidación a 30 °C (bajo luz ultravioleta) y 60 °C (en oscuridad) fue determinado mediante las medidas del K232 y K270 mediante la degradación de tocoferoles totales, γ-tocoferol y carotenoides totales. El rápido deterioro se produjo en el aceite almacenado bajo condiciones de luz UV. La información proporcionada en el presente trabajo es de importancia para usar aceite de semilla de rosa mosqueta en diferentes aplicaciones alimentarias y no alimentarias

Cilostazol enhances atorvastatin-induced vasodilation of female rat aorta during aging

Statins have cholesterol-independent effects including an increased vascular nitric oxide activity and are commonly used by patients with cardiovascular disease. Such patients frequently have cardiovascular diseases, which may be treated with cilostazol, a platelet aggregation inhibitor. This study was designed to investigate whether combined use of cilostazol would increase the inhibitory effect of statin on vascular smooth muscle and how maturation would affect these responses. Female Wistar rats, aged 3–4 months (young) and 14–15 months (adult), were sacrificed by cervical dislocation and the thoracic aorta was dissected and cut into 3- to 4-mm-long rings. The rings were mounted under a resting tension of 1 g in a 20-ml organ bath filled with Krebs–Henseleit solution. Rings were precontracted with phenylephrine (10−6 M), and the presence of endothelium was confirmed with acetylcholine (10−6 M). Then, the concentration–response curves were obtained for atorvastatin alone (10−10 to 3 × 10−4 M; control) and in the presence of cilostazol (10−6 M) in young and adult rat aortas. This experimental protocol was also carried out in aorta rings, which had been pretreated with NG-nitro-l-arginine methyl ester (l-NAME, 10−4 M). Atorvastatin induced concentration-dependent relaxations in young and adult rat thoracic aorta rings precontracted with phenylephrine. The pIC50 value of atorvastatin was significantly decreased in adult rat aortas. In addition, pretreatment of aortas with cilostazol enhanced the potency of atorvastatin in both young and adult aortas. Incubation with l-NAME did not completely eliminate the relaxations to atorvastatin in the presence of cilostazol. These results suggest that combined application of cilostazol with atorvastatin was significantly more potent than atorvastatin alone. Combined drug therapy may be efficacious in delaying the occurrence of cardiovascular events

The CORSMAL benchmark for the prediction of the properties of containers

13 pages, 6 tables, 7 figures, Pre-print submitted to IEEE AccessAuthors' post-print accepted for publication in IEEE Access, see https://doi.org/10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3166906 . 14 pages, 6 tables, 7 figuresThe contactless estimation of the weight of a container and the amount of its content manipulated by a person are key pre-requisites for safe human-to-robot handovers. However, opaqueness and transparencies of the container and the content, and variability of materials, shapes, and sizes, make this estimation difficult. In this paper, we present a range of methods and an open framework to benchmark acoustic and visual perception for the estimation of the capacity of a container, and the type, mass, and amount of its content. The framework includes a dataset, specific tasks and performance measures. We conduct an in-depth comparative analysis of methods that used this framework and audio-only or vision-only baselines designed from related works. Based on this analysis, we can conclude that audio-only and audio-visual classifiers are suitable for the estimation of the type and amount of the content using different types of convolutional neural networks, combined with either recurrent neural networks or a majority voting strategy, whereas computer vision methods are suitable to determine the capacity of the container using regression and geometric approaches. Classifying the content type and level using only audio achieves a weighted average F1-score up to 81% and 97%, respectively. Estimating the container capacity with vision-only approaches and estimating the filling mass with audio-visual multi-stage approaches reach up to 65% weighted average capacity and mass scores. These results show that there is still room for improvement on the design of new methods. These new methods can be ranked and compared on the individual leaderboards provided by our open framework

Structural determinants of lipid specificity within Ups/PRELI lipid transfer proteins

Conserved lipid transfer proteins of the Ups/PRELI family regulate lipid accumulation in mitochondria by shuttling phospholipids in a lipid-specific manner across the intermembrane space. Here, we combine structural analysis, unbiased genetic approaches in yeast and molecular dynamics simulations to unravel determinants of lipid specificity within the conserved Ups/PRELI family. We present structures of human PRELID1–TRIAP1 and PRELID3b–TRIAP1 complexes, which exert lipid transfer activity for phosphatidic acid and phosphatidylserine, respectively. Reverse yeast genetic screens identify critical amino acid exchanges that broaden and swap their lipid specificities. We find that amino acids involved in head group recognition and the hydrophobicity of flexible loops regulate lipid entry into the binding cavity. Molecular dynamics simulations reveal different membrane orientations of PRELID1 and PRELID3b during the stepwise release of lipids. Our experiments thus define the structural determinants of lipid specificity and the dynamics of lipid interactions by Ups/PRELI proteins